1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a row crop header for a forage harvester and, more particularly, is concerned with a rotary crop feed assist device on the header which sweeps a rotational path in the shape of an inverted truncated cone for imposing a downward force on crop stalk material being pulled into the header past the rotary device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Row crop headers for forage harvesters are generally adapted to harvest row crops, such as corn, where some of stalks are down and bent over, extending across and entangled with stalks of an adjacent row. Such down crop condition creates a problem in harvesting in that as the crop dividers of the row crop header move between adjacent rows, the down stalks drape over the dividers. The draped-over portions of the stalks are dragged along and over the dividers as the stalks are conveyed rearwardly along passageways between the dividers by gathering chains. The gathering chains are adapted to grip lower portions of the stalks after they are severed and to feed the same butt end first into the forage harvester. The draped-over stalks tend to wrap around the dividers and bunch up about the rear end thereof, adjacent to the discharge throat of the row crop header. This wrapping and bunching of the stalks causes jamming, resulting in high power requirements and an uneven feeding of the stalks into the harvester. Further, many stalks are lost and damaged due to the binding of the stalks over the divider which tears some of the stalks apart and pulls others out of the grip of the gathering chains.
Row crop headers with various rotary crop feed assist devices mounted at the rearward ends of the outboard ones of the crop dividers have been proposed in the prior art. Representative of the prior art are the devices disclosed in U.S. Patents to Lawrence (U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,117), Markham (U.S. Pat. No. 3,388,538), Knapp (U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,820), Barnes et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,983), Dolberg et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,366) and Shriver et al (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,048,792 and 4,215,527), the Shriver et al patents being assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
While these prior art devices tend to somewhat alleviate the problems experienced in harvesting down crops, problems in pulling in tangled stalks are still encountered. Consequently, a need still exists for improvements in the design of rotary crop feed assist devices to improve their performance.